ARMORED CORE: NEXUS ARTICLES

October 7, 2004 - And we're still playing Armored Core. It's a series that has been slowly evolving. Despite one of the new Nexus discs bragging that it's a revolution, Armored Core the eighth doesn't really revolutionize anything. In fact, there's a ninth and tenth Armored Core already in development. What does that tell you? This kind-of-sort-of abruptly leads us square into my first problem with Nexus: it doesn't fix many of the faults that have been hovering around the series and thus doesn't really warrant a purchase given its placement between the already solid old games and the assumedly solid new ones. The second major problem is that while Nexus makes wholly appreciated additions of its own, they sometimes work to inflate smaller, preexisting problems. So let's do this!

August 25, 2004 - Armored Core: Nexus, the newest in the long running FromSoftware series, is finally nearing completion. To celebrate its imminent launch, the developers at FromSoftware and the publishers at Agetec have established a new online hub for the title, which can be found right here. The website still appears to be under construction, but already has pages dedicated to features, story, media links, bulletin boards, and downloads.

May 14, 2004 - The biggest and baddest Armored Core has arrived, in the form of AC: Nexus. Spanning two discs, fans of the series will no doubt be impressed by the lengths From Software has gone to in order to make this game the best one ever!

April 28, 2004 - Gaming Life in Japan took a couple of weeks off for VISA purposes, but now we're back and ready to go nonstop (until E3, which falls just after Japan's Golden Week of weeklong vacation). While we were gone, a large list of low key games were released for the PS2, Game Boy Advance and even Xbox (but not GameCube), and we've been frantically trying to catch up with the likes of Gun Slinger Girls, Shaman King, Kinniku Man, Generation of Chaos IV and more.
This week, we've got looks at games like Michigan and Okami and high-resolution commercials for all the recent and upcoming game titles.

April 8, 2004 -
Famitsu celebrated its 800th issue this past week in Japan. We thought the special issue commemorating issue number 700 was cool, with its look at sales for the previous 17 years, but nothing could prepare us for the bonuses included in issue 800. The magazine includes a mini reprint of the very first Famitsu. We've given you a brief look at the issue below along with some advertisement scans from the issue in the ad section a few pages down.
With Japan's biggest gaming publication including a very retro bonus and the recent success of Nintendo's first ten Famicom Mini Famicom re-releases, it seems that retro gaming and gaming nostalgia are on the minds of gamers in Japan. There are already rumors of a second batch of Famicom Mini games, including such titles as Balloon Fight and Adventure Island. If every Famicom game were re-released on the Game Boy Advance at 2000 yen a pop, picking up all 1200+ titles would end up costing 2,400,000 yen. This is about one forth of the grand prize on Japan's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Read on for the full report from Japan.

March 24, 2004 - Are you a big import gamer? Does Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas do nothing for you while Angel's Feather and Oshiete Popotan have been on your eyes for the past few months? Then you've followed the right link!
This weekly section on IGN will keep you up to date on what games were released over the previous week in Japan. If you want to keep up to date on the import scene, be sure and check back every Monday.
The following gameswere released between 03.15.04 and 03.21.04. Click on the name to see all of IGN's current coverage on the title.

March 19, 2004 - The latest in one of console gaming's longest mech series just arrived to Japan this past week. IGN picked up our copies of Armored Core: Nexus to see what From Software has gotten around to improving this time around.

March 17, 2004 - The release of Monster Hunter marked the next step in Sony Computer Entertainment's Online gaming program for the PS2. Combined with Final Fantasy XI, Nobunaga's Ambition Online, Resident Evil Outbreak, Z Gundam and Minna no Golf Online, this game helps to form a strong name-filled lineup of Online-playable titles, most of which have managed sales in the hundreds of thousands of copies.
Even with strong sales, though, it's hard to predict the future of PS2 Online gaming at this point. To get some insight into where things stand in the Online gaming world, Weekly Famitsu did one of its regular surveys of developers and users. Some insights from that survey, below.
In addition to this, this week's Gaming Life in Japan feature has quick looks at Metal Wolf Rev and Sakurazakai Shouboutai, twenty new high resolution television commercials (including two Zelda commercials that you'll want to download and keep forever) and a hot (and this time real) babe.

September 10, 2003 - From Software, always one to make new entries in the Armored Core series of titles, is doing just that with a brand new entry planned for the PS2. Titled Armored Core Nexus, this game allows for up to four simultaneous players to play Online.
Two disks will be included with the game. The first, labeled "Past," contains remakes of old missions from the series. The other disk, labeled "Future," contains completely new content.